The Gull Cottage Hypothesis
by Juleeroze
Summary: Carolyn Muir and Daniel Gregg have passed on but still remain interested in the happenings of mortals. Their children are not only grown, but middle aged and although they own Gull Cottage jointly, Candy and Jonathan rent it out in the summer. What happens when Sheldon Cooper and Amy Farrah Fowler rent it for the summer after winning the Nobel Prize in Physics? A lot!
1. Chapter 1

**The Gull Cottage Hypothesis**

**by Julie Feldman**

As always, the GAMM characters belong to R.A. Dick and Twentieth Century Fox. The Big Bang Theory (TBBT) is the creation of Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady and is owned by Warner Bros. I make no money from this story.

_I wanted to do a mash-up of my two favorite shows, GAMM and TBBT, but they are set decades apart. How to bring them together and reconcile their two rather different types of comedy was the challenge. I hope you find my solution satisfactory._

**Chapter One:**** The Cottage Cell-Line**

Time: The summer of 2019

The house had stood for more than 150 and was as stout as ever, facing out to the village of Schooner Bay, Maine to the south and a large granite promontory to the north. It had been in the Gregg family for 110 of those years until it's last owner, Claymore Gregg sold it to his tenant, the well-known writer, Carolyn Muir in 1972. She had just had her first major success with her publication of Blood and Swash, the story of Gull Cottage's builder and ancestor of Claymore, Captain Daniel Gregg.

Unbeknownst to anyone but Claymore, Carolyn had a ghost writer, a literal ghost writer, in the form of Daniel Gregg himself. He had made himself known to her the first night she, her children Candy and Jonathan and their housekeeper, Martha Grant, were in the house. Although neither could admit it to themselves, much less each other, they were highly attracted to one other. As the months went by, they developed a working "understanding" and friendship. Little by little, it became more than that, but it could never be more than a platonic love, no matter how intense, while one was flesh and blood and the other a spirit.

Although Martha's opinion of the house was somewhat biased at first by the old kitchen, even she eventually came around and admitted that she, like everyone else in the family, loved Gull Cottage. Having the ghost of Captain Gregg, who eventually revealed himself to all of them, present and always looking out for them, just added to the affection they all had for the place.

The writer and her subject had worked on the book for more than two years, combing through the Captain's records, ships logs and letters. While many literary critics had reported at time that the book read more like a romance novel than a biography, the public ate it up. Mrs. Muir, a young widow, had been a magazine writer before publishing the book; as such money had always been an issue. Now at last she felt financially secure and the very first thing she did with her advance was purchase Gull Cottage. She and her family now had a secure home for the first time in their lives.

Martha eventually retired in 1980 and married Ed Peavey. They lived peacefully in the village for sixteen years before she passed away in 1996.

Claymore Gregg's life didn't change from one day to the next, one year to the next. He ran his real estate agency, was head of the town council, was the town's Justice of the Peace and Notary Public until he passed on in 2001. He never married and had no heirs. He bequeathed most of his property to Carolyn Muir, knowing of her relationship with Daniel and that her children considered him to be their father. They had even changed their names to Muir-Gregg. So leaving the property to her, to be passed down to Jonathan and Candy was like "keeping it in the family".

Carolyn had been of two minds about life and death after moving into Gull Cottage and meeting Daniel Gregg. As long as they existed on two different planes, there could be nothing more than an emotional relationship between the two of them. When she _did_ die, she was as sure as she could possibly be, that they would be together at last. Until that time, she had her family to live for. By the time of her death at age 77 in 2010, besides her two children, she had a daughter-in-law and three grandchildren.

Candy had gone into journalism. She had inherited Carolyn's writing skills, but with her adventurous spirit, investigative reporting fit her better than fiction writing. She had spent her twenties and early thirties first writing for newspapers and news magazines, and then transferred into television reporting in the mid-90's as cable broadcast took off. She laughed as she remembered how one politician had called her "a real-life Murphy Brown" in those early days. Now she was nearing sixty and was an anchor at one of the big cable news networks. When did the world start thinking of her as an _eminence gris_, in the same league as Leslie Stahl, Linda Ellerbee and Katie Couric? Her network promoted itself as "The Network for All Americans" and broadcast primarily out of Kansas City, Kansas, ("The Heart of the Heartland"), with major broadcast centers on both coasts, Chicago, and of course, Washington, D.C. Much as Candy wanted to be able to still live in Schooner Bay, Maine, it just wasn't practical. Not only did she have her nightly newscasts in Kansas, she still did a lot of reporting on the road and overseas.

Jonathan had been accepted into the Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland when he was eighteen. Captain Gregg was so proud, you would have thought _he_ had been accepted, too. Now at 57 he was a lower half Rear Admiral assigned to the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington. He had been married for thirty years to Amanda, who had been a Navy nurse. Their children were Cassandra, age 27, a hydraulics engineer, Daniel, age 25 and in medical school and Robbie, age 21 and at Annapolis himself. In a few years Jonathan would retire, and he and Amanda might move back to Schooner Bay, at least for the spring and summers. During his career there had been little time to get back there much, but they had spent their share of holidays there, with Carolyn when she was alive, and often with his sister as well.

Carolyn had left the house to Candy and Jonathan jointly, while dividing up the rest of the property. Neither of them would think of selling Gull Cottage, but neither of them could live there full time, so they continued the tradition of meeting as a family for Thanksgiving or Christmas, and during the summers they would split vacations there. They usually rented it out by the week during the summer season when they didn't want it for their own use, with one of the townspeople they trusted to look after it.

After her death, Carolyn did indeed join Daniel. He was no longer a ghost: they were both incorporeal conglomerations of energy, coming together in swirling colors and patterns and then separating again, knowing the most complete intimacy possible. Carolyn's energy tended to be golden and Daniel's varied in a range from blue to green. Neither of them were able to manifest on the earthly plane, but they were able to watch their human family, know their comings and goings, and occasionally appear to them in dreams, somewhat like an astral greeting card. In their eternity, Carolyn and Daniel did appreciate seeing their loved ones, especially when they were at Gull Cottage, but Daniel thought he would be upset with strangers using the house in Jonathan and Candy's absence. However, now that they were in a sphere where there was no concern or interest in material things, he found that it didn't matter to him any longer. All of the antiques that he had carefully collected were nowhere near as precious or important as those things he had discovered in this new and beautiful plane that he shared with Carolyn.

But, their presences were still felt in the house, in the form of places where a sensitive human could encounter a memory one of them had generated in that spot. One spot was in front of the living room fireplace, where the portrait of Captain Gregg still hung. Several people reported hearing Carolyn say, "What a magnificent man!" Another place was in the Master Cabin, anywhere between the binnacle with the telescope and the ship's wheel on the balcony. Nothing clear was ever heard, but many people reported a man and a woman talking softly. The last spot was on the widow's walk, were footsteps of an unseen man could be discerned at night.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two:**** The Stockholm Vacation Equation**

"And I'm here reporting from the Nobel Prize presentations in Stockholm, Sweden. Later in our broadcast, I'll be interviewing several of the American prize winners. But first, here with the latest headlines is Patrice Patricks."

"And you're out," the director told Candy through her earpiece. The network had set up a booth outside the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, but she would have to go remote inside the building to meet with the prize winners. Her producer had already snagged the winners in Physics, Drs. Sheldon Cooper and Amy Fowler. Candy wanted not only 60 second interviews with the winners after the prize ceremony, but then wanted to arrange full-on, face to face discussions which could be woven together into a documentary about the momentous work that they were being honored for. She thought she would suggest the title, "American Genius" to the producer and see if it would fly.

Once inside, after the audience began to leave their seats, she positioned herself, the camera and sound people just below the stage. Her producer brought the couple over and Candy introduced herself to them. Dr. Cooper was tall and thin, similar to her brother but looked a bit like he was just waking from a dream. Dr. Fowler, who was married to her co-winner, was a little shorter than Candy, with dark brown hair and glasses. Although not the prettiest of women, Dr. Fowler's smile was like a quartz halogen headlight.

"Just stand over here," directed Candy, "and just concentrate on me, not on anything else. Are you ready?"

"Yes!" responded Dr. Fowler, bouncing a little. "Sheldon, how are you?"

"Oh! I really am overwhelmed, Amy." He squeezed her hand. "I think you better do most of the talking, since I'm still in a tizzy."

"OK. If that's what you want, Sheldon." She turned to Candy and smiled her mega-watt smile again.

"Three, two, one, and your live," the producer murmured. Candy segued into her professional role, holding up a small microphone. "And this is Candace Muir-Gregg, coming live to you from the inside of the Royal Swedish Academy. The Nobel Prizes for tonight have been handed out, and we are very fortunate to have as our first guests, Dr. Amy Farrah Fowler and Dr. Sheldon Cooper, this year's prize winners in Physics. Dr. Fowler, is it true that you and Dr. Cooper came up with the basic idea for super asymmetry at your wedding?"

"Yes, we did. It delayed the ceremony for half an hour until Sheldon's best man, Dr. Leonard Hofstadter, dragged us out of the ante room."

"Yes, it was so exciting," continued Sheldon. "To have such a big breakthrough and our wedding on the same day!"

"I'm sure it was," replied Candy. Not really knowing where to go from there, she fell back on that good old standby; "And now that you've gained this milestone, what do you plan to do to recover from it?"

Dr. Fowler looked up at her husband, giggling slightly. "I guess it would be nice to take a break, maybe have a nice, relaxing vacation and just recharge."

"Yes, indeed," Dr. Cooper added. "We need some time to decide how to expand our research."

It was time for Candy to wrap up the mini-interview. "I want to thank you both for taking the time to talk to me, and our viewers." She grabbed Dr. Fowler's elbow before turning to face the camera directly. "We'll be back in a few minutes with other Nobel prize winners, after your local weather report."

"And you're out," the producer intoned. The camera lights shut off and the woman holding the boom mic stepped away.

Candy turned back to the couple, and now spoke to them much more informally. "If you're interested, my brother and I own a place in Maine on the shore front and we rent it out during the summer. It's a really nice old house in the small town where we grew up. Let me know if it's something you think you'd like to do. My producer over there can give you my contact information.

Much later that night, Amy and Sheldon crawled into bed. After all the excitement of the trip, the awards ceremony and all the rest, they were both exhausted. Still, Amy had something on her mind, and if Sheldon knew anything about her, it was that when she fixated on something, it would come out and sooner rather than later.

"Something's on your mind, isn't it?"

"Uh huh. I can't stop thinking about taking a nice long vacation. We deserve it, don't you think?"

"Well, I always enjoy my work so much, you know how hard it is for me to take time away from it. Aside from our honeymoon, I really haven't taken any real time off since I got to Cal Tech."

"Well, maybe Sheldon, this is an important time to relax. Let your mind refresh itself and then after the summer we can really get back into work."

"A whole summer, Amy?!" Sheldon shook his head. "You really are a little time spend-thrift, aren't you?"

"Well, think about this; that beach house in Maine probably has a bunch of bedrooms. We could invite our friends out and while everyone enjoys themselves in the sun and the water, you can also be discussing projects with them."

"The sun? Amy, what's gotten into you? You know that if I don't use SPF 70 or above, I turn into potato chip."

"Sheldon, for someone who grew up in Texas, you don't seem to enjoy the outdoors at all. We can buy plenty of sunscreen and a hat for you. You'll be fine. It will be good for you, trust me."

"It's late. We can continue discussing this in the morning. I'm looking forward to trying some little knäckebröd sandwiches for breakfast." Sheldon turned to Amy and gave her a gentle kiss on the cheek before sliding down under the covers. "Good night."

"Good night, Sheldon."

The next morning found them with all of their friends at the hotel's breakfast buffet. Sitting down with the prize winners were Dr. Leonard Hofstadter, a research physicist and his wife, Penny who was an up and coming sales team leader with a large pharmaceutical company, Dr. Bernadette Rostenkowski-Wolowitz, a biochemist with the same company, Bernadette's husband, Howard Wolowitz, who was an astronautical engineer at Cal Tech and Dr. Rajesh "Raj" Koothrappali, an astro-physicist at the university as well. A carafe of typically strong Swedish coffee was being passed around the group as they shared their reactions to the night before.

"I still can't believe it," Amy began as she buttered a piece of toast. "Us. On that stage!" She had a huge smile for her husband, and he smiled back. "Not bad, Dr. Fowler, considering that you're a neurobiologist."

"Well, I've always said that if Amy could handle _you_, she could handle anything," Leonard shot at Sheldon with a grin. Turning to Penny with a little concern, he asked her, "Are you feeling OK? You're looking a little bit green." She was eyeing her glass of milk as if it were her mortal enemy. "Oh, just a touch of morning sickness. This milk is way richer than I'm used to and it's not sitting that well."

Bernadette, mother to two toddlers, leaned over and patted Penny's hand. "How about a little herbal tea and a few dry crackers. That usually worked for me."

"And," interrupted Raj, "flat ginger ale also helps."

Howard changed the subject. "So, are you two thinking about that vacation rental in Maine? When I was at M.I.T., my friends and I headed up that way sometimes. I think you'd like it."

"Well…," Sheldon began. Any mention of the time that Howard was at M.I.T. getting his master's degree in Engineering, reminded him that this friend was not in the same professional class as all the others in their group (Sheldon always made an exception for Penny, because not only was she very successful at what she did, but she had a special place in his heart after actually obtaining Leonard Nimoy's DNA on a paper napkin for him).

Amy interrupted. "We really should find out more about the house and the town. It sounds like it could be a great place, and I'd bet that there would be enough room for all of us."

"Now, Amy! Hold your horses!" recoiled Sheldon. "We don't know a thing about this place yet and here you are, inviting everyone to just 'sashay over'!"

Bernadette sat up as tall as someone who is 5-foot-nothing can. "Listen, Mister! We've got two small kids. We don't 'sashay' anywhere."

Raj held his hands up as everyone stated to talk at once. "Take it easy. _If_ Amy and Sheldon rent this house, and _if_ they invite us to visit, and _if_ we can all get the time off, then we will worry about it."

The group's plans included staying two more days in Stockholm for site seeing. There was some anxiety amongst them though. The Wolowitz's were nervous about being away from their son and daughter for the first time, and Raj was hoping to see Sara Michelle Geller again (hadn't being seated next to her on the trip to Stockholm been amazingly serendipitous, and then her agreeing to be his date at the Nobel ceremony, too?) The Hofstadter's were still adjusting to the idea of starting a family. That, however, didn't stop Amy from getting in touch with Candy who was still in the city, interviewing prize winners and Nobel officials.

"Well, the house is called 'Gull Cottage' and it was built by a sea captain over 150 years ago. Not only that," continued Candy, "he built it himself, by hand. It has four bedrooms, an eat-in kitchen, dining room, living room and a large alcove that can be used as another small bedroom. It also has a washer-dryer pair, a 'widow's walk' on top of the roof and a balcony off of the master cabin, errrr, bedroom. The attic can also be converted to a sleeping space if you don't mind sleeping up in the eaves. There's a private beach across the road that goes with the house, plus a nice front yard and a lot of room in the back where you can barbeque and have parties. In town there are several restaurants and stores, a couple of docks and places where you can rent sail boats, bicycles, cars and such. We have someone from the town who takes care of it for us during the year, and it will be clean and ready if you're interested in it."

Amy was very interested and thinking that it would be best to just present it to Sheldon as a done deal, she asked Candy what the rental would cost for the entire summer.

"Oh, you want it for the entire season?"

"Would that be a problem for you?"

"Noooo," Candy replied slowly. "My brother, his family and I usually spend a week or two at the cottage during the summer, but I think we can work something out before or after you're there."

The two women agreed upon a price for the rental and Amy started planning.

"You did what?" was all Sheldon could say when Amy told them on the flight back to California. "Without seeing if I would go along with it? Woman! What has gotten into you?"

"Really, Sheldon, it will be good for you. It's only from July 1st to August 31st. It's a quiet, little town. We can have our friends come out and maybe some of our family, and then we'll be able to enjoy it alone, together." Amy grabbed her husband's arm and squeezed it, giving him her brightest smile.

"Oh, alright. Just don't expect me to be making bonfires on the beach or hosting clambakes."

From on high, Carolyn looked down benignly at her daughter. "Daniel, come listen to this; Candy is renting Gull Cottage for the whole summer. I think the couple who are taking it are rather interesting. They're both scientists." Of course, this was communicated without words; I am only translating the thoughts they shared.

His energy mingled with hers in a swirling pattern. "That is indeed different, my dear. I do hope there are no problems causing them to _need_ to rent it for such a long period. In any event, it would seem that it will be different from the typical summer visitors. I look forward to observing what they get up to!"


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three:**** The Summer Fun Calibration**

On July 1st, Amy, Sheldon and Raj drove their rental car up to the gate of Gull Cottage. They all stared at the house for a few minutes before Raj broke the silence.

"It's a beautiful house. Is that a ship's wheel up there?" he said, pointing at the balcony.

"Yes, Rajesh. I think it is!" Amy replied in delight.

"Well, let's not just sit here. We should drive around to the garage over there and start unloading," Sheldon said with some exasperation. "It's been a long trip and there is still work to do."

They parked and began unloading their cases and boxes from the vehicle when a man of about their age, with dark red hair came out of the back door of the house. Extending his hand, he introduced himself. "Hi! I'm Will Shoemaker. My family takes care of Gull Cottage. Welcome! Here, I'll help you with your stuff."

In short order, everything was in the house and Will took them for a little tour.

"This is obviously the kitchen. We stocked some staples for you, and you can get what else you need at the store in town or the supermarket in Keystone. The stove is an old gas range and you need matches to light it. It goes way back before there was anything like piezo-electric ignition. Pots and pans are under here," pointing to the cabinets under the sink," and here are your plates and glasses. You can squeeze six in at the table here, but the dining room holds a lot more. It's through that door back there." He then took them across the hallway and opened the doors to the living room. "This is the parlor." Pointing to the portrait above the mantel, he said, "And this is Captain Daniel Gregg himself, the builder of the house." For some reason, when Amy looked at the portrait, she found herself shivering.

"You probably won't _need_ a fire at this time of year, but there's good dry wood stacked out back if you'd like to start one. If you've never built a fire in a fireplace, call me the first time and I'll walk you through it. Now past this curtain is the 'Alcove'. The loveseat opens up into a small bed." The space had an old sea chart rack, nautical paintings and a small desk and chairs.

The three scientists followed Will back to the hallway between the parlor and the kitchen. He turned to the left and lead them all the way to the back to the bedroom that had been used by Martha Grant before her retirement and marriage to Ed Peavy. Reversing his steps, he pointed to the stairs leading to the basement and then lead the group up the winding stairs to the bedrooms. What had once been the Nursery now held a pair of twin beds facing the window seat. "Those can be pushed together to make a king-sized bed," he pointed out. This room also had a fireplace and two silhouettes graced the wall on either side of the window. One was a girl and the other was a boy. Next they stopped in the room next door.

"This is the master bedroom, but it's always been called the 'Master Cabin'. You see, the Captain designed the house to be as much like a ship as possible." "Yes," Raj agreed. "I saw that the stove and the cabinet in the kitchen had a small railing to keep things from falling off in heavy weather."

"Well, this is the most ship-like room in the house." Will opened the door to a room that was fully paneled. The dressers also had small railings around their tops and the wall lamps were on gimbles. Several paintings of sailing ships were scattered around the room and a small desk and chair were directly facing the door. There was another large fireplace off to one side with a stiff looking couch to its left, a porthole next to it and an occasional table and deep, comfortable-looking chair opposite the couch. It was a very masculine room, and yet there was something deeply romantic about it as well.

Raj's eye was immediately caught by the raised platform beyond the desk and chair. It was surrounded by a bow window with a pair of French doors in the middle, but what attracted his attention was the binnacle with the telescope on it. He went up onto the platform to gently examine the antique while Sheldon and Amy moved forward.

"Oh, wow! This is quite old, but it's in very good repair. The Muir-Gregg's must have taken very good care of it!"

"Here, let me show you something else," replied Will. He flung open the French doors and ushered the three guests onto the balcony."

"Oh, that's the ship's wheel we saw from the car," exclaimed Amy. "Well," added Sheldon, "if Captain Gregg pictured the house as a ship, he certainly needed a wheel to steer it by! Although I don't think he got very far with it." Sheldon laughed his strange "hee-hee" laugh. Everyone looked at him for a moment and then resumed what they were doing. Raj was already back at the telescope, looking at the sea, the town and the surrounding landscape. Will moved everyone along to the guest bedroom and then herded them up a smaller staircase to the attic.

"This room is called 'The Wheelhouse' and its where the Captain stored some of his excess possessions, including his sea chest, log-books and other items. Candy and Jonathan have cleared a lot of that away, but there are still some interesting items up here, like that small ship's figurehead over there." He pointed to the wooden carving of a buxom woman handing on one of the room's uprights. There were two, fold-up beds against one wall that Will showed them. "There's plenty of linens in the closet on the floor below, but I'm afraid there is only one full bath in the house." Sheldon looked concerned. "One bathroom for up to 10 people?" "Well, Jonathan and Candy added a lavatory off of the kitchen and washroom a few years ago, so that helps. There's also an old porcelain claw-footed tub in the barn. It's kept covered, so it's clean, but you have to lug the heated water to it and then drain it after you're finished." Amy suddenly found herself remembering her "House on the Little Prairie" fantasies and the fanfic she had written years ago featuring her giving a bath to Sheldon, the "stranger" in town. "Now," Will continued, "I have one last thing to show you before I shove off." Will exited the Wheelhouse and opened a small door in the hallway. He and Sheldon both had to bend a bit to enter the doorway and there they found a short, steep staircase leading to a hatch at the top. Will unlatched it and pushed it up and out. He climbed out and helped the others up onto the Widow's Walk. The view in the late afternoon summer sun was spectacular and the mix of salt breeze and pine scent was intoxicating. Even Sheldon was impressed. "This is spectacular! Look at all the things you can see from _here_. It's even better than the balcony!"

The next morning, the trio went into Schooner Bay and had a hearty breakfast, picked up more food and cleaning supplies and then returned to Gull Cottage to begin to arrange it. Raj had offered his services as decorator and event planner in return for spending nearly three weeks with Sheldon and Amy and they (or rather Amy) had agreed to the arrangement.

Amy and Sheldon took the Master Cabin, while Raj claimed the guest room for the time being. When the house was full, he'd move down to the housekeeper's bedroom.

Amy was a little disappointed that there was only one closet in their bedroom, but at least it was deep. Sheldon was delighted that they each got a full dresser with marble top and mirror to themselves. Keeping his things neat and in a particular order was important for him. Much as he loved his wife, if he ever found his hairbrush touching hers, he immediately had to remove every single hair, regardless who it belonged to, from his brush or otherwise he would be out of sorts for hours. For Amy's part, having her own dresser meant that Sheldon wouldn't be moving her things into patterns that made _him_ comfortable and left her wondering where he'd put something that she needed.

After lunch, the trio decided to change into swimsuits and spend some time at the beach. Raj filled a shopping bag with cold drinks and some fruit and took a small bag with a towel and some sunscreen and his phone and earbuds, while he put an old baggy tee shirt on and then slipped on some flip-flops and sunglasses. Amy came down similarly prepared and grabbed her cell phone too, so she could take some pictures. She also had a trashy romance novel at the bottom of her bag, a secret pleasure that she hoped to enjoy that afternoon.

On the other hand, Sheldon came to the front door dressed in a long-sleeved tee-shirt, a pair of worn old jeans, high-top sneakers with white calf-length socks underneath, a desert cap with a flap to cover the back of his neck, large sunglasses, zinc oxide on his nose and the heavy smell of high SPF sunscreen all over him. On his shoulders was a full-sized backpack, filled with one economy sized bottle of sunscreen, another of aloe gel, three large towels, a pair of flip-flops, another hat, a sun-resistant water shirt, adult-sized water wings, diver's gloves and two chemical-activated ice packs. Both Raj and Amy were used to Sheldon's tendency to prepare for any contingency, so they just looked at him and said nothing before they went outside.

On the beach, there was a folding sun-shade that was permanently set into a concrete base and which could easily cover many more than the three of them. They set their things down and Raj ran into the surf, jumping and laughing. Amy laid out her towel on the sand and removed her cover-up and shoes. Turning to Sheldon, she saw him arranging everything carefully, putting something to weigh down the towel at each corner. Then, with equal carefulness, he stripped down to his bathing suit, applied more sunscreen to his chest, face, legs and arms before asking Amy to "do his back". Then, he put on the water shirt, the water wings and the desert cap.

"Sheldon, you know how to swim. Why are you using water wings?" Amy asked in confusion. "You can never be too safe, Amy. I'm not used to swimming in the ocean. Are you going to be alright? You don't have anything with you." She was about to say something, when she realized that this was her husband's way of expressing his love for her. "Come on!" she said and grabbed at his oily hand and dragged him to the water.

Daniel and Carolyn enjoyed watching the three friends play in the water. Pink energy sparkles mixed with her gold ones, while Daniel's blue-green energy shifted to turquoise. "I'm so glad that Sheldon relaxed a bit," sighed Carolyn's energy. "Yes," Daniel laughed. "He is wound a bit tight. He would have made an excellent first officer, carrying out every order to perfection, but as a captain, he would have been a Queeg! Now, Amy is a special person to love him, warts and all."

Carolyn thought to herself about how women from time immemorial learned to adapt themselves to their partners quirks and habits. She had been so lucky to have found Daniel, who, despite attitudes about the roles of men and women learnt in the nineteenth century, had adapted to her as much as she had adapted to him. She hurt a bit for Amy, since she was able to know everything there was to know about all of them from any point in their lives. Carolyn knew how far Sheldon had matured, and how much of that was due to his love for the woman in his life. And yet, as a couple, they were quite unbalanced. Amy gave much more to the union than Sheldon did. She rebelled every so often, and nudged him along, but Carolyn thought it was time for a good hard shove.

"Are you sure you want to do this, my dear? After all, we really should only be observers," mused Daniel. "And if you do this for the Coopers' what's to say that you won't go and find a mate for Rajesh?"

"I know, dear, I know. Sometimes, I just can't help myself, though. It's a pity about both Raj and Amy. They're wonderful humans and deserve more than they are getting in the 'love and affection' department."

"Then, Carolyn," replied Daniel with more seriousness, "you should bring this up with The Ineffable One."

"Oh, I don't think I need to go that far. I just want to put a little thought or two out there. If it helps them learn and develop faster, that's wonderful. If not, then it will work out in another way. You know if it's overstepping my role, nothing I try to create will come to be."

That evening in the Master Cabin, Amy waited on the couch for Sheldon. She had already showered and since it was summer, she had brought only her lighter nighties and for once wasn't wearing one of her flannel "grandma gowns" to sleep in. She had at least fifteen minutes to get into her novel before Sheldon would be finished, so she relaxed, ready for a good read. The heroine was about to fling herself at last into the waiting arms of the dashing stranger, but Amy couldn't concentrate for some reason. She put the book down and walked over to the binnacle, touching it lightly.

Looking at her hand touching the brass object, it was as if the hand belonged to someone else, a woman more delicately built than she, with blond hair and green eyes. Looking to her left, she saw the image of Captain Gregg, come to life. He was even more handsome than the picture, and the way he looked into the eyes of the woman that Amy was living in, in that moment, was something that she had never encountered before. That look was of total love and understanding, a look that held a connection that had been born at the birth of the universe and would not end until time itself ended. It was both exhilarating and sad, because Amy never expected that Sheldon would understand something like that.

He entered the room to find his wife standing by the binnacle, eyes glassy with tears and staring off into space.

"Amy…?" Sheldon asked warily. He had never seen that particular expression on her face. Was she sick? Had she received some bad news while he had been showering? He approached the raised platform carefully. Amy didn't even seem to be aware of him. Standing to her left, he also put a hand on the binnacle and was swept into the vision. He was stronger, a little taller, sure of himself and his place in the world. There wasn't an ounce of anxiety in him and he felt a vitality and virility that he had never experienced before. Especially the virility. Looking to his right, he did not see Amy, but a beautiful blond woman with emerald green eyes. The bond between them was staggering and he felt like he had no need to breathe. She fulfilled every emotional need he had and ever would have. He would give everything to her, just because she loved him, and he loved her with every ounce of his being. He would give her all that she desired, do anything for her, be anything for her, just as long as she never left his side. He would do it all gladly, for his Carolyn, his Amy.

Finally each took a breath and returned to themselves. Sheldon was looking so intensely at her, that Amy blushed. He stepped forward and caressed her cheek, feeling her soft skin as for the first time before he engulfed her in an extraordinarily intense kiss. When they parted, they were both breathing hard. Sheldon's hand was entwined with her hair and he again pulled her to him with a desire that he had never experienced before. Again he stepped back, this time whispering, "Amy, I love you more than I have ever loved anything," and sweeping her up, he carried her to the bed.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: The Wolowitz Containment Field**

"But what about Raj?" Daniel asked Carolyn, his energy glowing a deep blue.

"Patience, dear. There is still time to find something that will help him learn what he needs to know to find love. In any event, the Cooper's next guests will be arriving shortly," Carolyn replied.

Until Bernadette and Howard Wolowitz arrived from Pasadena, however, Raj made the most of his time on the widow's walk at night with the Captain's spy glass. After years of working with computer-assisted large telescopes and telescope arrays, he found all the charm he forgotten about in the night sky. While the telescope in the Master Cabin was stronger than this hand-held version, he rarely had a chance to use it. Amy and Sheldon seemed to be having a second honeymoon, or perhaps making up for their first one. Raj really didn't mind. He would take some pillows and a blanket and make a nice nest for himself on the widow's walk and watch the night sky through the glass or just lean back and let himself absorb the beauty above him. Once, he even fell asleep up there, waking to the purple-pink-gold of a summer sunrise.

The following Sunday morning, the Wolowitz's arrived. They had thought about bringing their children, Haley and Michael, but then decided that dragging two toddlers under the age of three and all their equipment wasn't such a good idea. This was definitely not the year to try this type of trip. Once again, they enlisted Bernadette's parents to babysit for a week. Not being overseas, they'd be able to easily Face-Time with the children on the west coast and get more down time themselves than they had been able to while in Stockholm.

Raj, eager to see his best friend, Howard, picked them up at the airport. It was a pleasant surprise to find that they hadn't overpacked and had just two suitcases with them.

"Yeah, I know," explained Bernadette in her unique voice. "We've gotten so used to packing up the house whenever we take the kids somewhere, that I feel naked without diapers and wipes within reach."

"Remember the days before kids?" asked Howard. She shook her head. "I don't either!" he said smiling at his wife. Turning to Raj, he continued, "Why didn't you bring Cinnamon?"

Raj shrugged his shoulders. The little Yorkshire Terrier was like his baby. "I thought about it, but she's not used to a house where she can go in and out, and I'd constantly have to wash her if she got into the sand and the saltwater, and that's not good for her skin. Stuart and Denise might not be up to watching Haley and Michael for more than an evening, but Cinnamon will be OK with them until I get home."

Bernadette had the same reaction that Amy had when she first saw Gull Cottage. "Oh, wow! This is beautiful! Howard, look at that porch. Maybe we should add something like that onto our house."

"Hmmmm," he replied, immediately in engineering mode. "I think we could. Let's talk about it when we get home."

Sheldon and Amy came running out to greet them and show them up to the old nursery where they had moved the two beds together. Amy pointed out the silhouettes to Bernadette.

"I thought you'd like those."

"They came with the house?" asked Bernie.

"Yes. We were told that they are pretty old. Not as old as the house, but at least back to the 1890's."

"I'd love to find something like that, or someone who could make them for us. HOWARD…," she yelled, "Come up here! I want to show you something. HOWARD…"

"Coming, Mother," he mumbled to himself as he ran up the stairs.

That evening, they barbequed behind the house. Howard made the fire in the grill, and of course laying out the charcoal and the kindling, ("We don't want the taste of lighter fluid all over our food!") he was as exacting as any engineer could make it.

"You know, Howard, maybe you could light the living room fireplace one night," commented Amy.

"Oh, puhleeze! It took him forty-five minutes just to get the barbeque set up the way he wanted it. By the time Howard laid a fire, it would be early morning. " Bernadette turned to her husband, "I wish I had known how precision-oriented engineers could be. Sometimes, it drives me up the wall."

"Now, Bernadette," interrupted Sheldon, "you can't blame Howard for being what he is. Even if he only has a Masters' degree, he is an excellent engineer,"

"Why, thank you, Sheldon!" Howard bowed in his direction.

"…although the physics of laying a fire aren't at all difficult." Amy sighed, Howard glared, Bernadette gave Sheldon the stink-eye and Raj just ignored the whole thing while he tended the food.

There was a full moon that night and the Wolowitz's decided that a walk on the beach would be just the thing before turning in. Shoes in hand they strolled along at the water's edge and Howard curled his fingers around his wife's hand. He smiled at her, looking for the right words to express his feelings. Suddenly, he remembered the song he had written for her when she was in protective quarantine at work, years ago, before they had even married; "Bernadette, my Bernadette…" he sang quietly as they walked.

She smiled back at him. Sometimes they both had difficulty showing their emotions to each other, she had to admit. What with work and the kids and business travel, and just life being a whirlwind, it was easy to forget what had brought them together in the first place. When it was time to turn back, Howard took his hand from hers and wrapped it around her shoulders, pulling her closer to him. They climbed the beach stairs up to the road and stopped, smelling the smoke.

"The house! Is it on fire? Let's go!" Howard yelled. They ran the short distance up the road to see smoke billowing out of the parlor windows and the front door. Amy stepped out, coughing and waving her hand in front of her face.

"Don't worry," she coughed. "It's under control." She gagged a little bit.

"What happened?" asked Howard.

"Ah," another cough. "Sheldon tried to light a fire in the fireplace but didn't check the damper first."

Raj came to the door next. "The smoke will be cleared in a few minutes. No harm done."

"No harm?!" Bernadette marched inside. Sheldon was by the fireplace, fanning the smoke away, his face and pretty much the rest of him covered in soot. "No harm, Mister?! You scared us half to death thinking that the house was going to burn down."

"Bernie…" Howard put a hand on her shoulder to calm her down. She turned on him, blanketing him with her anger as well.

"Don't 'Bernie' me, Howard. This could have been serious!" She turned back to Sheldon who was looking very meek and trying to make himself as small and inconspicuous as possible in the face of the demon that was Bernadette. "What if my children had been in the house, eh?" She grabbed a pillow and smacked him with it. "What if Penny were here. Smoke is not good for a pregnant woman!" She hit him with the pillow again, forcing him to take another step back. "What about Amy and Raj? What would you have done if they'd been hurt?" Another smack and another step toward the elevated window seat. "You're a 'know-it-all', Sheldon Cooper! I don't care how many degrees you have, there is a limit to what one man can know and certainly what you can do!" A final smack with the pillow and Sheldon went sprawling against the window seat. Amy ran over to see if Sheldon was hurt and then turned on the other woman.

"Enough, Bernie!" She took a breath and then said calmly. "You've made your point. I think that we've all had a long enough day. The fire is out. Let's all go to bed."

"Oh, my! She really does have a temper, that little one!" Daniel merely laughed at Carolyn's observation, turning several different shades in amusement.

"My dear, she reminds me somewhat of you. A lot of spunk in her, you must admit."

"Yes. Perhaps a little too much? I never went after you with a pillow, after all."

"No, but you did use your feminine wiles very effectively, if I remember correctly." Daniel looked down at Gull Cottage's inhabitants again. "Learning to express her emotions more appropriately is something that Dr. Rostenkowski-Wolowitz needs to learn. Not only would her husband and friends appreciate that, but her children will need to learn how to act appropriately as well and she is setting a poor example."

"Why, Daniel, are you planning something you shouldn't?" inquired Carolyn, grinning in gold and orange.

"Of course not! I wouldn't think of such a thing. However, we can never know what will present themselves as learning opportunities for our humans, can we?"

"Our humans, Daniel? When did they become ours?"

"Just as soon as we became interested in them, my dear Carolyn."

The next morning, Raj was up before anyone else. He started the coffee and poured himself some orange juice. He was still upset by last night. Everyone knew that Sheldon believed he could conquer just about anything intellectual that the universe could throw at him, but he meant no harm and he had even shown them in Stockholm that it was possible for him to learn that his friends and family had a life and needs of their own, separate from his. But Bernadette could really wound a person, and the older she got, the more snarky she seemed to become. He was particularly saddened about how she treated Howard at times. He had seen her demean his friend too many times to count already. And he knew that sometimes her friendship with Penny and Amy strayed into jealousy and self-interest. As he filled a mug of coffee for himself, he wondered if there was any way she could learn to be calmer and more gracious.

A few days later Raj took Amy and Bernadette to the Schooner Bay General Store while Howard and Sheldon took a look at the old water heater in the attic, which was just as temperamental as it always had been. Amy wanted to re-stock the food supply a bit and Bernadette was looking for candies and toys that she could bring home to her children. Sighing as she eyed the limited products on the old store's shelves, she muttered to herself, "What a rinky-dink town!" Raj overheard her and took her by the elbow to the outside of the store.

"Bernadette! That's not polite. You are a guest here. These people don't think they live in a 'rinky dink' town and they'd probably find Pasadena too loud and congested and dirty. It would help if you could put yourself in someone else's shoes for once. And if you can't do that, at least keep you opinions to yourself."

Amy exited the store, and hearing Raj's last sentence asked, "What opinions are those?"

Bernadette was definitely not happy with Raj's correction of her. "Oh, never mind. Let's get back to the house." She spent the rest of the day in a mood and couldn't make herself be congenial with anyone. Finally, she decided to go sit on the porch swing and think.

Swinging slightly, she began to feel herself become drowsy. "Maybe my mood is just from tiredness", she thought to herself. "I'm on vacation. No kids to worry about, everyone else is occupied. A little nap wouldn't hurt." Before she knew it, Bernadette was asleep.

The snatches of dreams came quickly; it was snowing as she sat in the porch swing, looking at a couple from the 1860's kissing and whispering to each other near the porch stairs; the captain from the portrait in the living room, standing on the walk half-way between the gate and the house, yelling at another man who was clutching a small package; in another scene a man who looked like the same man in the portrait, but in modern night clothes, leaning over a blond woman. He was talking to her, saying something about "not a sincere bone in me body" with an Irish brogue. Now she saw all sorts of different workmen dashing out of the house. The last one was wearing paint-stained coveralls and flying behind him were paint cans and a drop cloth; thunder and lightning illuminating the front yard while the sun shone brightly just yards away at the beach; a deep resonant baritone telling her "The nineteenth century was a time made for women", how it was a time of graciousness and civility, and seemingly, of greater calmness; the blond woman again, saying "I've got to make my own choices and my own judgements" with a flash of defiance in her eyes; and finally the captain saying to the blond woman while standing in the middle of the yard, "There may be hope for him yet!" Or did he say, "hope for her"?

"Very interesting, Daniel." Their colors swirled together. "But do you think that Bernadette will be able to overcome such a deep-seated personality trait?"

"I cannot know, but she certainly has some things to think about. And I _did_ become somewhat more calm, even gentle, under your influence, my dear Carolyn."

"You always had it in you. All I did was help you find the balance for that part of your personality to become apparent."

"Then I hope that by sharing some of our memories with her, we have given Bernadette the tools to find that balance herself."


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: The Hofstadter Cell-Division Conundrum**

It was Friday morning at the end of the second week of Sheldon and Amy's stay in Gull Cottage. Leonard and Penny Hofstedter would be arriving that afternoon and Raj was gathering his things to move down into the housekeeper's room. He had already stripped the bed and was just bending over it to gather the linens, when his cellphone beeped, indicating that he had a new email. He had tried, really tried to ignore the phone while he was on vacation, but for some reason he picked it up this time.

The email was a message from President Siebert from the university; there would be a new astrophysicist joining the department in a few weeks and he was sharing her resume with her soon-to-be colleagues. Raj opened the attachment and began to read. Her name was Yesenia Veronskaya and she had been born in Russia but raised in New York City. She held degrees from Harvard, Stanford and Oxford and he recognized some of the papers that she had co-authored. She was going to be a good addition to the department, but it also meant that she would be adding competition for research funds. He was more disinterested in the news than anything else at the moment.

Later in the afternoon when Leonard and Penny arrived, Amy practically flew down the wooden staircase and wrapped her friend in a bear-hug.

"Bestie! How are you feeling? Did you have your 14-week sonogram yet? Have you started to buy maternity clothes? How about the morning sickness?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa there! Let us catch our breath, Amy. I'll get you all up to date in a moment. I need to go to the 'little girl's room' first!"

"There's a lavatory over there," Sheldon pointed toward the washroom area. Penny turned to go and didn't stop while Dr. Cooper continued. "There's only one full bathroom in this house, but if you want to 'rough it', there's an un-plumbed tub out back y'all, in the barn. Guess you can use it to wash up 'afore the Saturday night Hootenanny."

"Sheldon, stop it!" Bernadette was making a valiant attempt at being nicer, so she didn't yell at him. Turning to Leonard, she continued. "It's a little tight, but we're managing. Couples _are_ encouraged to wash up together," she said with a wink and a quick look at Howard.

Penny came back and everyone settled down in the parlor. "I guess I'm at that stage where the baby is starting to press on my bladder. At least the morning sickness has stopped for the most part."

"Lucky you," replied Bernadette, remembering her pregnancies, especially the last one with Michael. "I didn't know that one little body could hold all that baby and all that vomit, too."

"Can we change the subject, please!" pleaded Sheldon as Howard and Leonard laughed at him.

Penny had come back and was standing next to Leonard. "Oh, buddy, I am so hoping that you get to experience this one day," Leonard said, putting his arm around Penny's waist.

"How about cravings?" asked Howard.

"Well, I miss my glass of wine," shared Penny.

"You mean 'glasses', don't you?" Leonard injected. Penny just gave him her usual curled-lip look.

"As I was saying, I miss my _one glass_ of wine when I get home from work. Other than that, the only cravings I've had have been for baloney and lemonade."

"Hah," snorted Bernadette. "Howie, tell them what I wanted that last week before Michael was born."

"Let's not. Just thinking about it is making me gag."

"Enough of this chit-chat," declared Amy. "Did you or did you not get the sonogram done?"

Penny bent down and opened her purse. "Tah Dah!" She whipped out her cell phone with a picture of the sonogram on it and she passed it around. "Two arms, two legs, ten fingers and ten toes…" Leonard intoned solemnly before breaking out into a big grin, "but no penis!"

"A GIRL!" screeched Amy. Then everyone seemed to be talking and hugging at once.

After all the hubbub died down, Leonard grabbed their bags and put them in the guest room. Penny followed him upstairs and tested the bed by bouncing on it several times. It met with her approval.

"Oh, would you look at that," exclaimed Leonard, pointing under the dresser. Penny craned her neck and squinted her eyes. "What's that?" she asked. Her husband bent down and slid something out toward the middle of the room.

"It's a chamber pot, just for you! I bet Raj thought of it." Leonard started to laugh, which turned into guffaws, which caused tears to course down his cheeks.

"I will not use a chamber pot, Leonard!" Penny swatted his shoulder. "Stop laughing; it's not funny, dammit!"

"Yes, it is," he wheezed as he started to search his pockets for his asthma inhaler. "See, if you need to go, but it interferes with Sheldon's bathroom schedule, no problem!" Now he had to lay down on the bed, he was laughing so hard. The only thing Penny could do was leave the room, calling "Rajesh Koothrappali, you didn't find me a chamber pot, did you? 'Cause if you did, I'm gonna kill you!"

Dinner that night was a big pot of ratatouille, served around the large dining room table. Sheldon was very interested in the larger Hofstadter family's reaction to Penny's pregnancy. Leonard and his mother had been working on improving their relationship, but only Penny knew about this, and it was a connection that still needed a lot of work. As for Leonard's father, Sheldon wasn't sure he wanted to go there, because his mother and Alfred Hofstedter still remained in contact, in a friendly, if somewhat disturbing way. So he asked about Beverly.

"Uh," Leonard began, "she's examining her feelings about it, as well as wanting to make sure that Penny and I are truly happy with the idea of having a child. I think she's gone through several rounds of liking the idea of being a grandmother and then feeling that it makes her too old, and then feeling strange that my exalted brother or wonderful sister haven't had children first."

"Well, she's a very complicated person," Sheldon replied. "Someone of her caliber of mind would have a lot of different feelings about it."

Raj looked at Sheldon for a moment. "That was a very deep thought, Sheldon."

"Yes," said Amy. "For someone who doesn't think much of the 'soft sciences', much less anything to do with the psychology of personalities, that was extremely insightful."

"Well, I look at it this way," began Penny, leaning forward. "I like Beverly, I really do, and I 'get' her. She's spent her life kinda hiding behind her research, so that she hasn't actually had to let her emotions out to herself, or to anyone else, for that matter."

"Sounds like someone else I know," muttered Howard to no one in particular.

"A grandchild is a whole different ball of wax," continued Penny. "And in addition, I'd been saying for the last two years that I didn't want children. I'm sure she was as caught off guard as everyone else."

"Yes, I'm sure she was," said Leonard in a neutral voice. "But I do want her to understand that our child is not going to be a subject of any experiments." Leonard's voice began to rise. He still was having difficulty getting over many of the aspects of his mother's form of "child-raising by child-study" with him. Penny took his hand in her own. "No way. I'm gonna be a fierce mother-bear to our cub, and I have a feeling that you're going to grow some pretty impressive claws of your own."

Leonard just wanted to sleep in the next morning, but Penny was up when the bright sun splashed across the bed.

"Come on, sleepy-head. Come down to the beach with me. I'm going to do my morning yoga routine. You can join me or watch."

"Can I sleep on the beach?" Leonard mumbled.

"Why would you want to sleep when it's such a beautiful morning?"

"I don't get it, Penny. A week ago you were tired, moving in 'slo-mo' and generally dragging around like a worn-out old donkey. All of sudden, it's like you have the energy of a six- year-old."

"I guess it's the second trimester bounce showing up. It really looks nice outside, quiet and it's still a little cool. Get going, Dr. Hofstadter, and I might let you take a nap later!" With that, Penny grabbed one of Leonard's arms and literally pulled him from the warm embrace of the bed.

A few minutes later they quietly slipped out of the house and made their way down to the beach. It was indeed a beautiful morning and the water of the bay was at slack tide. They walked hand-in-hand at the water's edge, looking for a good place to lay out their towels. It was quiet and intimate in the early light.

"You know, Penny," mused Leonard, "everything happened so quickly these last few months, that I don't think we've really, _really_ talked about having this baby. It seems like only last winter you were still saying that you didn't want kids. Are you truly OK with this?"

"Like I told you, Leonard, now that it's happened, I'm happy with the idea of us having a child."

"Are you sure? Really sure?"

"I said I'm sure! Why do you keep asking?"

"I don't know, Penny. It was such a turn-around for you. I guess I just want to make sure, that's all."

Penny stopped walking and turned to look at Leonard closely.

"Are _you_ OK with it? Maybe because I was so against having a family, it pushed you into really wanting it, but now that you don't have to be 'the loyal opposition', maybe you're having some mixed feelings?"

"Oh, no! Not at all, Penny! You know I've always wanted children with you. I thought about it the day you moved in across the hall from us. Of course, over all these years, I may have built it up as a grand fantasy. And, now that it's really happening…especially after going through the morning sickness with you…I'm beginning to realize what the reality of pregnancy is really like. Ah, through the man's point of view, at least. I imagine that it's all that much more real for you."

Penny put her arms around Leonard's neck. "Oh, Sweetie, when I was in high school, every other girl was either pregnant, trying to get pregnant or trying to avoid getting pregnant. Two of my best friends had babies instead of graduating, and both their boyfriends dumped them, so I spent a lot of my senior year going to doctor's appointments with them, setting up layettes, encouraging them through being sick and tired and swollen, and even being in the delivery room with one of them. Pregnancy has been pretty real to me since I was seventeen. Maybe that's one reason that I didn't want to try to get pregnant. _You_ never saw this before, at least not close up."

"No, I think I had a very romantic view of having a baby, like where the man comes home to see his wife knitting little booties and having that pregnancy glow that everyone talks about."

"While nobody talks about pregnancy zits?" She laughed, but inwardly she was happy that she hadn't really had a breakout. "So, OK. Now you're part of the real pregnancy experience, and you've had a little time to settle into it. Are you doing OK?"

Leonard though a moment, finally letting himself acknowledge that the business of having children wasn't what he expected it to be. He was more than a little frightened by the thought of becoming a father and raising a child in an atmosphere that -he hoped- would be completely different than the one he had been raised in. He _had_ been worrying that being a parent was a burden that he wouldn't successfully perform and that when push came to shove, he'd be as cold and judgmental as his mother had been. But, and this was a big "but", he and Penny were in this together and he just knew she would be a great mother. And then he thought of some of the other mother-figures in his life: Mary Cooper and the late Debbie Wolowitz. They both had plenty of quirks, there was no denying that, but underneath all that, they loved their children and their children's friends.

"Yeah. I think I am."

They walked on a few more steps, when Leonard stopped and swung Penny around to face him. "I just thought of a name for the baby. How do you like 'Joy'?"

"'Joy Hofstedter'…'Joy Hofstedter'…" she said it as if she were tasting it. "I like it, Leonard! Our little Joy Hofstedter."

"Well, dear Carolyn, at least Penny and Leonard didn't need any assistance from us."

"No. I think they'll do just fine." Carolyn mixed more thoroughly with the Captain, creating a shimmering moonlight-on-midnight-blue-dark-water effect. "I so regret that we were never to have a child together," she sighed.

"As do I, my dearest. If we'd had, our child would have been beautiful, intelligent, and _courageous_! But Candy and Jonathan feel like they are my own, and they meet all three criteria, don't you think?"


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6: The Parental Theorem Theory**

The Hofstadter's had arrived on Friday and the following Monday morning, the Wolowitz's left Schooner Bay, anxious to return to their daughter and son. Sunday night they had a big clam bake on the beach, thanks to Raj Koothrappali's planning. It had lasted well past midnight, despite the need for Bernadette and Howard to get to the airport by eight the next morning.

It had been a fun, intense weekend. It had felt a bit like they were back in college, sharing a dorm. Conversations had veered between work, shared confidences, good-natured pranks, happy memories and all the other things old friends share amongst themselves when they could enjoy each other's company.

Leonard and Penny would be spending one more week in Schooner Bay. Raj would be leaving with them next Monday as well. Sheldon and Amy were looking forward to slightly less coming and going in the rented Gull Cottage, and so once the Wolowitz's were on their way home, everyone grabbed cleaning tools and started to put the house back into "Bristol Fashion."

Sheldon and Leonard were in charge of cleaning the kitchen and they started by going through the refrigerator. Leonard seemed hesitant about something, and while he could sense that something was on his friend's mind, Sheldon didn't know how to broach the subject. Finally, when he couldn't stand the tension in the kitchen any longer, Leonard let out a long sigh.

"I've been meaning to tell you and Amy, but I just didn't have an opportunity, and I didn't want to take advantage of your generosity in offering us this time to relax, and we were all having such a good time, and…jeeze! I told my mother that we'd be up here for the week and she invited herself up to see us. You see, she hasn't seen us since we told her about the baby news." Leonard held up his hand to prevent Sheldon's comment. "She made a reservation at the Schooner Bay Inn, so you don't have to worry about her crashing here."

"Leonard! I'm surprised at you. I wouldn't think of letting Beverly stay at the Inn when we have the room. We'll just have to ask Raj to stay in the downstairs' bedroom again. When is your mother arriving?  
"Ah, between three and five this afternoon, depending on traffic. She's driving up from New York."

"Oh." Sheldon stopped for a moment. "Then we'd better tell Raj to bring his things downstairs again….right now."

After all these years, Amy still wasn't sure how she felt about Beverly Hofstedter, a psychiatrist and neuropsychiatrist. Neurobiologists looked at behavior from a physical basis and didn't quite trust the view that environment could have such a large effect on how a biological entity would engage with its world. Plus, the woman had no filter, whatsoever. Why, once she had even made a pass at Sheldon! And she was rude to Sheldon's mother, Mary and wasn't at all kind or supportive of Leonard. She really couldn't understand what Sheldon saw in her, but he liked her an awful lot for some reason. Amy decided for his sake that she would just be as gracious a hostess as possible.

At three o'clock, on the dot, Dr. Beverly Hofstadter pulled up at Gull Cottage. Dressed in slacks and a silk blouse that didn't seem to be what one would normally wear for a seven-hour drive from Manhattan to the Maine seacoast, she stepped out of her black Mercedes CLS-450 coupe. Looking up at the house, she cocked one eyebrow at the nautical touches that greeted her. "Fantasyland," she thought to herself.

Captain Gregg was surely passed the ability to feel anger, yet his colors swirled a dangerous shade of intense yellow-green. Who was this woman to dismiss the house he had built with his own two human hands? For the first time in quite a long time (by human standards, of course), he regretted that he no longer was either a spirit or a living person. He certainly would have wanted to have a few words with her. And quite possibly, they would not have been gentlemanly!

Leonard and Sheldon ran down the steps of the cottage when they heard the car drive up.

"Hello, Mother! I'm glad you got my text message."

"Yes, thank you Leonard." Beverly looked up at the house again. "It should be an experience, I'm sure." She turned to Sheldon. "How are you, Sheldon? Congratulations again on the Nobel."

He was pleased that she remembered to mention the prize that he was so proud of. Beverly really did understand his scientific character better than his own family, although no one knew him better than Mary, unless it was his extremely elderly and fragile Memaw, Connie. Sometimes he would muse to himself, that if he could combine Connie, Mary, Beverly and Amy into one person, he'd have his perfect female.

Raj joined them by the car and grabbed the small suitcase from the back seat. "I'll just take this up to the guest room for you, Beverly."

"Thank you, Raj. I was sorry to hear about you ending your engagement, but I can't say that I was surprised," she told him in that somewhat condescending way she had. "By the way, I'm sorry that I missed Howard and his wife. I would have liked to talk with them while I was here." Raj and Leonard both blushed as they recalled how Beverly had tried to get Raj and Howard to admit to a sexual attraction between them.

"Uh, let's go inside, Mother. I would imagine you'd be thirsty after the drive?"

In the kitchen, Penny and Amy had put out a large pitcher of lemonade, fruit and some iced spice cookies from the bakery in Schooner Bay. Penny gave Beverly a big hug when she entered the kitchen, while Amy was more reserved. Everyone pulled up a chair at the kitchen table and had a glass of the cold drink. Penny took a bite of a cookie and made an appreciative sound.

"What kind of cookie is that, dear?" asked Beverly

"Just the best spice cookie I've ever had. They make them locally. I'm going to have to mail a case back home before the end of the week."

"Hmmmm," responded the older woman. "I like oatmeal raisin cookies myself. But beware, next week you might hate the taste of them. When I was expecting Leonard, all I wanted to eat during the middle part of the pregnancy was sardines in tomato sauce, but suddenly when I got to my seventh month, I couldn't stand the thought of them."

Amy quickly stepped in to change the subject. "How long can you stay with us, Beverly?"

"I have to leave Thursday morning. On Friday I have a meeting with my publisher."

"Oh, are you working on another book, Mother?"

"Well, I have some thoughts I want to discuss with them. Our last conversation about parent-child relationships gave me plenty to think about. And I would also like to explore the grandchild-grandparent relationship."

Leonard thought for a long moment. His mother had detailed his childhood, sometimes graphically, in her books about child development, and it was still a painful issue for him. He still couldn't live down the title of Beverly's best seller, _Needy Baby, Greedy Baby_.

"Mother, maybe you should hold off on the grandchild-grandparent book for a while? Penny and I absolutely won't allow you to do scientific observations on our baby like you did with me. And I don't want you to turn our changing relationship into anything for publication, either. That would hurt me very much and put us right back where we were before."

"I see," was all that Beverly said. Penny wondered if the comment was actually the first salvo in a coming battle.

Carolyn's pink and gold colors dimmed somewhat as she observed the interactions taking place in her old home. She had worked hard to be a good mother while she was alive, and she hadn't believed in falling in line with all the psychological theories of the moment. The only child expert that she would read was Dr. Berry Brazelton because his approach was based on common sense. That's exactly how she had raised Candy and Jonathan; with common sense and love, love and more love. Dr. Beverly Hofstadter wasn't her cup of tea by a long shot. Carolyn look hard and deep and didn't find much ability to express love and affection in the woman. What made her think she knew what to tell confused parents? But as Daniel had warned her in the past, they had no right to interfere in human concerns, at least not directly.

Daniel's upset, however, was even greater than her own. He was no longer a puce green, he was now the darkest possible shade of blue short of black and every so often, there would be a glint of silver, like a lightning bolt lancing through.

"She no more knows how to be a mother than she knows how to be a seaman!" he declared to Carolyn. "Someone needs to put her right before she does damage to another generation of children. Blast her!"

Carolyn was startled. She hadn't seen Daniel's temper like this since they had passed into the light together. When she was alive, she would have teased his ghostly self and the temper squall would pass, but this was different. This was what righteous indignation truly was; anger in service of the innocent and disenfranchised. It was the only negative emotion that they could express in their energy state because ultimately, being kind, loving and forgiving was much more powerful.

That night, after a wonderful dinner at the Lobster House, everyone settled down on the porch to enjoy the night sounds and the smell of the ocean mingled with the garden flowers. For a while no one spoke, but then Beverly thought that she should make an effort to soothe the feathers that she had ruffled.

"Raj, I understand that you gave up the guest room again, so that I could have it. I want to thank you."

"Beverly, that's not necessary. I have no problem being in the bedroom on the ground floor, and the room upstairs is much better for you. And," he said with a laugh in his voice, "It's right across the hall from the bathroom."

She had heard about the toileting situation. Personally, she thought it was a clear sign that Sheldon had anxiety issues and that his friends used the knowledge subconsciously to aggravate him, thereby displaying their own hostilities. "Still," she told herself, "it's best not to get into it. This is a vacation, after all."

Leonard leaned forward to take in the rest of the group. "Amy and Sheldon have been really wonderful to host everyone. After all, this is _their_ celebration and their time to relax and think about their future. "

"Yeah," Penny chimed in. She put her hand on Sheldon's shoulder gently. "But you'll have the rest of the summer to just chill by yourselves."

"Unless you two get lonely," Raj chimed in.

"No," Amy answered quickly. "I want some time alone with my husband." She smiled tenderly at Sheldon.

"Yes," he replied as he turned to her. "That would be very nice. And I think we should turn in." He stood and gave his hand to her, thinking about how much they enjoyed being together in the Main Cabin.

With that, everyone trickled back into the house, glad that the day was over.

Daniel and Carolyn were glad that Beverly had held her thoughts to herself. "Do you think there is hope for her?" Carolyn asked.

"There is hope for everyone, I've been told. But earthly existences _are_ among the most difficult a soul can attempt, and it takes some more lifetimes than others to learn all the lessons they need to. Why, I've been reincarnated quite a few times already, you know. And The Masters still feel I need to work on my temper, so there will be a few more lives to go through."

Carolyn knew all that and knew that as part of the same soul group, once they were born again, they would find their way back to one another yet another time. Still, she was not anxious yet to return to the physical world. This last time had, on balance, been difficult and was not something she wished to repeat quite so soon. Only the idea of eventually having Daniel by her side again made the thought of being born again on Earth, bearable.

In Gull Cottage, knowledge of other lives was locked deep away in the minds of the current residents. Only little hints presented themselves in the guise of dream symbols; for Amy it was being in a canoe, paddling up a raging river, confident and successful. Raj saw himself as the director of an orphanage, with many children crowding around him, happy and healthy and the orphanage workers applauding him while one special person stood off to the side, keeping her feelings to herself. Penny dreamed about her baby, seeing the little girl as a three-year-old sitting in a ray of sun from the window, trying to grab at the dust swirling in the light. Leonard was climbing up a steep mountain and Sheldon was having a philosophical discussion with the late Dr. Sturgis, Memaw's "boyfriend". The discussion had some important physics information in it, but by the time he woke, it was gone from his mind.

Beverly's dreams were the most interesting of all. She found herself living in Gull Cottage, as it had been long, long ago. At first the house was empty, with only herself to worry about, but then all sorts of strange people from the nearby towns started to show up and move in with her. It was odd, but she didn't seem to mind the intrusions. They were nice people and she was happy to have them there. It was even comforting.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7: The Parental Intensity Paradigm**

The next morning Beverly slept in. While Amy threw a load of laundry into the washing machine, Raj and Penny put towels out on the front lawn and enjoyed an hour of yoga in the warm salt-sea air. Leonard and Sheldon swept the downstairs and then took the living room rug out back to give it a good, old-fashioned beating.

It was their steady "thwacks" against the rug that they had hung over the clothesline which woke Leonard's mother. Wearily, she got out of bed and looked out the window for the source of the noise. Beverly had gotten to sleep easily enough, but she felt like she had dreamt all night. It was strange that the dreams were all about Christmas, and stranger still that neither she, nor anyone else she knew was in them. Not being a Freudian, she didn't put much stock in the meaning of dreams beyond basic wish fulfillment, but last night's dreams seemed to stay with her for some reason. Perhaps it was, she speculated, that they all occurred here in Gull Cottage and included the same family, despite being placed in different eras. She'd have to think about this later. Right now, she was hungry, the bathroom was apparently unoccupied, and she wanted to spend some time out on the beach.

By the time she got down to the kitchen, the rug was back on the living room floor and Leonard was brewing another pot of coffee.

"Did you sleep well, Mother?" he asked.

"I did a lot of dreaming."

"Well, I hope they were pleasant dreams, at least." Leonard put a cup of coffee down on the kitchen table for her and then brought over some croissants that had been left to keep warm in the oven, along with jam and butter.

Beverly took a sip of the coffee and enjoyed its taste for a moment before asking, "What do you know about this house?"

"Only that its about 150 years old and that the portrait over the parlor fireplace is that of the builder and original owner, Captain Daniel Gregg," Leonard replied.

"Did he have a family?"

Amy came in, her arms around a basket of clean towels. "No, according to one of the current owners, he was a bachelor. Her family has had the house since the mid-seventies."

Beverly shrugged her shoulders and was about to say something when they heard a car stop outside.

Sheldon had stepped outside after helping with the rug. While Raj and Penny finished their exercise, he had sat down on the porch steps to read that morning's Schooner Bay Beacon. There really wasn't much in the newspaper that day, or any day except ads, and most of them were aimed at the summer visitors: boat rentals, bicycle rentals, arts and crafts for sale and the occasional house-for-sale. There were typically one or two columns of local news, and perhaps a column of national and international news. For what was in there, Sheldon thought they needn't go to the trouble of printing and delivering it daily. Once a week would definitely suffice.

"Any plans today, Sheldon?" Penny asked as she came up the steps.

"No, not really. I imagine Leonard wants to spend some time with Beverly, so I don't think I'll have a chance to discuss any physics with him. What about you?"

Penny made her funny little duck face. "Nah. It's nice not to have to _do_ anything. Raj, any plans for you?"

"Well, I thought I might walk into town, pick up a few things. Nothing else, really."

Before anyone could respond, a car pulled up in front of the house and Alfred Hofstedter stepped out and grabbed a small bag from the back seat. Sheldon, Penny and Raj ran down to the gate of the house, panic rising in all of them.

Leonard's father was an anthropologist who had been divorced from Beverly for about five years. Even though the proceedings had been straight forward and quick, there was still ill feelings between the two. Had Alfred known that his ex-wife was going to be visiting or was it just a terrible coincidence?

"Alfred! What a surprise!" Penny was the first to pull herself together enough to greet him. She could feel her two friends almost vibrating with anxiety next to her.

"I'm sorry, I know I should have called, but I'm teaching a class as a visiting professor at Boston University this summer, and I just thought after I finished talking to the students yesterday afternoon, that I would take a trip up here to see you and congratulate you on your wonderful news. How are you feeling?"

"How do you think she's feeling, Alfred? She's pregnant!" said Beverly as she marched down the flagstone walkway with Amy and Leonard in her wake.

"Dad! What a surprise!"

"Yes, we've established that, Leonard," Alfred replied with a very controlled voice as he looked at his ex-wife. "I regret not calling first, now that I see your mother is here."

"Yes. Well. You were never very good about planning ahead, were you?" Beverly's first shot was a direct hit.

"I didn't have to. You always had our lives planned down to the second, for years ahead." Score one for Alfred.

"You were always a spur-of-the-moment guy, Alfred. Like when you decided to go off with Mary Cooper at Leonard and Penny's reception dinner." Bam! Another direct hit, this one with collateral damage to the Cooper's.

"Mary is a very nice person and she is not the sort to find fault with others, unlike some women I know, Beverly." Not a bad comeback, especially since Alfred had put the emphasis on _nice_.

"Well, she is a _Christian_ woman, after all. I didn't think…"

Before Beverly could finish Amy intervened. "Why don't we all go inside instead of talking like this out on the road."

Carolyn and Daniel both changed colors rapidly. "Well, this certainly is a surprise," she remarked.

"Yes, just when I thought that her dreams were providing some good learning for her, the stress of her former husband has thrown it all out the window," he replied. "Although, becoming grandparents means that the Hofstedter's will have to learn how to work in tandem for the good of the child."

Carolyn's gold brightened. "Oh, yes. Remember how wonderful it was to enjoy ours when they started coming along? How nice it was to be together with them? I miss that time. I never told you this, dearest, but after Cassandra was born, whenever we babysat for her, I would pretend that she was _our _baby."

The Captain's colors were an indulgent shade of light blue, reminiscent of his eyes. "I knew about that…and I indulged in that fantasy as well. We would have made good parents, together, M'dear."

"We _were_ good parents together, Daniel. Jonathan and Candy grew up to be excellent adults, and you had just as much to do with that as I."

"Thank you for that," Daniel's blue swirled with light green again. "Now, if only Beverly and Alfred could learn to do the same!"

Back inside, Alfred put his bag down in the foyer. "I'd like to spend some time with you and Penny," he said to his son, "but obviously this isn't the right moment. I guess I'll turn around and go back down to Boston."

"No, Dad. Don't go. Mother is leaving on Thursday morning. That's just the rest of today and tomorrow. Don't you both think you can be adults for that long? After all, we don't get to see you much."

"Yes, please," Penny pleaded.

"And we have more beds," Sheldon added, to everyone's surprise, especially Amy's.

"I can't deny that I'd love to stay and visit for a few days. But I really think that I should get a room at the inn I passed in town. At least until Beverly leaves."

"Well, I for one can act like an adult even with you here. You do see less of Leonard than I do, Alfred." It was a small missile as well as a challenge, so everyone ignored the volley.

"You're all sure? I would appreciate to not having to drive back and forth." Everyone nodded and said things like, "Of course!" and "We'd love it."

Amy and Penny grabbed Alfred's elbows and brought him up to the attic "Wheelhouse". "We'll get this fixed right up," Penny assured him. "And you get a nice breeze up here," added Amy. "I just have to tell you about the bathroom situation…."

Sheldon and Raj were in charge of making dinner that night, so at five o'clock they began to clean and chop vegetables for what would become a fish stew. Raj was directing Sheldon's efforts with some herbs when they heard another car drive up. They looked at each other in disbelief. Who else could it possibly be?

The Texas drawl was unmistakable, and Sheldon was dumbfounded. "Mom?!"

"Hello, Shelly. I know, I should have let you know that I was coming out, but this was a big surprise to me from Georgie." Mary Cooper stood on her toes to give her son a kiss. Sheldon looked quickly in the back seat of the taxi just to make sure that his older brother and twin sister weren't tucked in there too. "You know, sweetie pie, he and Missy are just so proud of you and Amy, and Meemaw and I am too."

Leonard and Alfred came down the steps to see what was going on. Mary looked up, pleased to see Alfred, as well as his son.

"Why Alfred, I didn't know you were here! It's so good to see you again!"

"And it's good to see you, too, Mary," he replied with some formality.

Leonard was thinking about a stiff drink. Just behind him, Amy, Raj and Penny were standing, all with their mouths hanging open. They were thinking about the beginning of World War III and whether they should evacuate Gull Cottage before the hostilities began in earnest. The last to emerge was Beverly.

"Oh, hello Beverly. It is a surprise to see you here too." Mary looked up at Alfred. "Have you and your wife gotten back together?"

"Uh, no," he replied. "It's just a," he was going to say 'unfortunate', but thought better of it, "a coincidence."

Raj stepped forward. "I'd better move my things to the alcove, so you can have the downstairs bedroom, Mrs. Cooper. Here, let me take your bag."

Dinner was hastily moved into the dining room. When everyone was seated, Mary grabbed Sheldon's hand on her left and Penny's on her right and bowed her head.

"Must you, really?" asked Beverly, dismissively.

"Yes, I must. It wouldn't hurt you to spend a moment to be thankful to whatever you wish to be thankful to, for the food and the company. After all, Shelly doesn't believe in Jesus, but he can at least be respectful." For the moment, at least, no one had anything else to say, so Mary took a breath and bowed her head again. "Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for this food and bless the hands that prepared it, Amen."

The group ate in uncomfortable silence until they were all finished. Mary went to help Leonard and Penny clean up, Raj went up to the attic to bring down more linens, Amy took Alfred up to the ship's wheel off of the Master Cabin and Sheldon invited Beverly to walk down to the beach.

In the kitchen Mary cleaned the stove and the prep table while Leonard washed, and Penny dried the dishes.

"I just want you to know, Leonard, that I don't dislike your mother. It's just that I find her way of thinking so different than my own."

"Look, no one knows more than I do how difficult my mother can be. We just want to have some calm seas here."

"I think we can all be adults about this," Penny chimed in.

"I absolutely agree," said Mary. "I know how to hold my counsel. Besides, I came here to spend time with Shelly and Amy. Now, tell me about getting ready for the little one. I'm just so excited for you two!"

Sheldon and Amy had put a pair of patio chairs on the balcony off of the French doors to their bedroom, and it was a good place to enjoy the evening coming on. With the fresh breeze off of the water, the only insects seemed to be the lightning bugs dancing in the pine trees.

"It's nice up here," remarked Alfred after sitting companionably for a moment or two.

"Yes. I also love coming out here early in the morning when it's cool and still and you can smell the pine trees and the flowers. Too bad we can't take this house back to California with us. I think it's just perfect," Amy replied.

"Amy, I want to apologize to you and Sheldon about my part in today's fiasco. I really should have gotten in touch with Leonard before I drove up here on the spur of the moment. I didn't think that anyone else might have the same idea. I guess in a way, Beverly's right; I'm not much for planning. Maybe that's why I'm a good anthropologist. I go with the flow of whatever culture I'm observing, fit right in, don't have my own agenda, that sort of thing."

"I think that's important for any investigative scientist," Amy replied. "You can't study something properly if you have a pre-conceived idea about what the outcome will be. And I suppose you could say the same thing about this situation as well. If everyone goes into it thinking there's going to be fireworks, then that's what we will all find."

"Well, I for one am going to plan to be gracious to Beverly, at least while we're both here. It's the least I can do for you and Sheldon and my son and daughter-in-law."

On the beach, Sheldon and Beverly sat down on one of the rocky outcroppings that framed their little cove.

"Beverly…I hope you're not upset by Alfred and my mom showing up today. Well, I know you're _upset_, but I hope that you can put it aside. I mean, for Leonard and Penny's sake." Sheldon sighed. It wasn't easy for him, even after all this time, to put his feelings into words. "I learned something important with winning the Nobel. I had lived all my life with _my_ dreams, and _my_ needs and _my_ desires uppermost in my mind. I thought that because I had all these people who were my friends and loved ones, that they were providing me with those things because they loved me and all I needed to do was allow them to share in those dreams, needs and desires. That what I wanted, they wanted. That fulfilling me, fulfilled them. And then, I suddenly found out that they had their own needs, dreams and wants. And I wasn't doing for them what they were doing for me, and that was wrong. Love and friendship is a two-way street, Beverly. 'One for all, and all for one', so to speak. Do you see what I mean?" 

Beverly looked at Sheldon with curiosity. Of course she understood what he was trying to tell her. She understood that he was talking about balance in relationships. But she felt that her situation was opposite to Sheldon's experiences. She really didn't have too many needs and desires that she wished other's to fulfill. Of course, she wanted to be liked, even admired, but because she could remain an uninterested observer, she was able to see others as they were and what they needed to do to be their most actualized selves. Sometimes that meant not being liked at all. She began to explain this to Sheldon, but he stopped her abruptly.

"I don't think you understand what I've been trying to tell you, Beverly. No one can be all 'take', and no one can be all 'give', especially when those in our orbit don't agree to be on the opposite sides of the equation. You can't give everyone your opinion of things without taking their opinion of you into account, anymore that I can ignore everyone's opinion of the world in favor of my own opinion. It's just that simple. Sometimes you just have to shut up and listen, Beverly."

"I'm am surprised and impressed with Sheldon," mused Daniel. Carolyn could only agree. "Now let's see what Alfred, Beverly and Mary may have learned."

The next day and a half were quiet. Beverly remained politely distant from Mary and Alfred and by silent agreement, Alfred let her spend the greater amount of time with Penny and their son. After she left on Thursday, the atmosphere in the house relaxed and Alfred had an enjoyable visit with the young couple and their friends. He and Mary went to the movies one night, but their relationship remained platonic. He left on Friday so that he could prepare for his class on Monday.

In the meantime, Mary had spent the time getting to know her son and Amy better as a couple. She liked Amy's new look and liked that Shelly was making such a good effort to be less self-involved. She always felt that when he had left home and had lost her day-to-day influence on him, he had become increasingly self-centered, despite being surrounded by others as extraordinarily intelligent as he was. She was glad that Amy could stand her ground with him, as well as knowing when to pick her battles. Yes, her Shelly could be a mine field, but despite an admitted bias, she felt he was worth it.

Sunday afternoon was busy with everyone but the Coopers packing to leave and cleaning up after themselves. Raj, Penny, Leonard and Mary were all going to the airport, so the car would be packed, and Sheldon would have to stay home while Amy drove. They had one last, leisurely dinner together in town before it was time to call it a night. Before Sheldon and Amy went upstairs, however, Mary pulled them into the parlor for one last, brief chat.

"I don't want to be a meddling mother, now, but you've been married over a year, and now that you won your prize, I hope you will consider starting a family." Mary put her hand up to stop any comments from her son and daughter-in-law. "I think you'd be very good parents to wonderful children, and yes children _are_ a blessing whether they are 'special' or not. And I don't mind telling you, I adore being a grandmother to your nieces and nephews and wouldn't mind more grandbabies."

"Mom," began Sheldon, "it's not out of the question."

Carolyn and Daniel were very pleased with how things had turned out that week in Gull Cottage.

"It could have been quite a disaster," said Carolyn, the pink dominating her gold.

"Well, now, I was sure it wouldn't be. After all, we were sending them our best possible thoughts," replied the seaman. "Too bad nothing developed for Rajesh."

"Daniel, you know we are not allowed to meddle," Carolyn was firm.

"No, dear Lady, but you never know what is in store…"


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8: The Geological Eruption Quotient**

It was Monday evening of their fourth week in Gull Cottage, and Amy and Sheldon were finally alone. The company that they had their first three weeks had filled the house to overflowing, especially when people started dropping in uninvited.

Amy was particularly tired from driving Sheldon's mother, Raj, Penny and Leonard to the airport and then helping her husband finish cleaning and washing. Then they had to go over to the supermarket in Keystone to restock their kitchen. They picked up a pizza for dinner and watched a movie while they ate. Then it was up to their bedroom, the Master Cabin.

It was such a romantic room and Sheldon had surprised Amy with being more amorous than ever before in their relationship. "I really like this, Sheldon," she said as she rested her head against his shoulder. He had his arm around her shoulders while they relaxed on the couch and he nuzzled her hair again. "I like it, too!" he whispered back. Then he pulled back, slouching into to cushions. "I've been thinking about what my mother said. You know, about having children?"

"Yes, Sheldon?" Amy looked up in surprise. She had a plan to slowly get Sheldon accommodated to the idea of a family, and she had started during the winter by giving him that book about "baby experiments". She was happily surprised at how much he had enjoyed interacting with Haley and Michael Wolowitz after that, but nothing more had been said while they were all thinking of the competition for the Nobel Prize. Now with Penny and Leonard's pregnancy, and Mary Cooper's thoughts on the matter, it seemed like there was going to be a discussion about having a family.

"I just wanted you to know that I've never assumed that we _wouldn't_ have kids. I just haven't thought about planning for it."

"So, does that mean that you _do_ want to plan to have a child at a particular time?" Amy asked slowly.

"I'm not sure." Sheldon looked into the middle distance, just thinking for a few moments. "Actually, I think I would like it best, if we just let nature take its course. Not try to get pregnant, but not _not_ try to either. I think whatever happens will be just right for us. What do you think?"

"What do I think?" Amy replied, trying not to squeal. "I think I love you even more than I did five minutes ago."

"Oh, that's so sweet and wonderful!" Carolyn blushed more pink and more sparkly than before. Daniel's colors swirled in many different blue-green shades, making designs that signified his happiness with the conversation that Sheldon and Amy were having.

"Ah, but we still haven't thought about Raj," he noted, his colors subduing.

"I think we need to wait until certain things have gotten themselves aligned, dear. That new astrophysicist hasn't even moved to California yet."

"True, m'dear."

"Oh, you really _are_ sweet to keep thinking about Rajesh!" Carolyn teased, knowing what Daniel's reaction would be.

Dark, swirling green like storm-tossed waters became his dominant color. "Madam! If there is one thing I'm not…"

Amy and Sheldon spent the next few days enjoying the quiet and solitude of being alone in Gull Cottage. The spoke a little about where their research might go once they returned to the university, but mostly they just enjoyed being together without being interrupted by guests or having to play host to a house-full of disparate personalities. Being the height of the summer, they found themselves spending time outdoors, either on the beach, hiking around the woods that came up to the back of the Gull Cottage property, or walking around Schooner Bay.

That blissful quiet was shattered one night (or actually very early one morning), by someone pounding on the front door.

Sheldon leaped out of bed, suddenly realizing that he had no way to defend himself or Amy if there was a burglar trying to gain entry to the house.

Amy was anxious as well, but as she reminded her husband, the house was firmly locked up and the front door that whoever it was, was banging on, was solid. They had their cell phones out if they needed to call the police, so they put on robes and quietly went down the stairs. Amy steeled her nerves and called out,

"Who's there? What do you want at this time of night?"

"Hey, it's me!" came a deep, booming voice, unmistakable anywhere, "It's Bert Kibbler." Another voice joined in, "And me, Bawwy Kwipke!"

Sheldon looked at Amy and Amy looked at Sheldon, and they burst out laughing.

"Of course," she said.

"Why not?" he answered and opened the door. "Come on in." Sheldon opened the door and with a sweeping motion of his hand invited the geologist and physicist into the house. "Everyone else has pretty much dropped in whenever they wanted to, so why not two more?"

"Just tell us, though," said Amy with her hands on her hips, "why 3 am in the morning?"

"Oh, that," rumbled Bert. "We got great prices on the red-eye flight."

"And besides," Barry added, "the female flight attendants on these flights ah the youngah ones who don't have much senyowaty. They like to talk a lot mow than the oldah ones do."

Amy put her hand to her forehead. "Barry, have you ever considered speech therapy for your lisp?"

"It's not a lisp. It's 'rhoticism'," which he pronounced as 'wohticism'. "And yes, I did go to thewapy foh it. I did weally well, too. You should have huhd me befow."

They led the two newcomers upstairs, stopping first in the old nursery. The two beds were still next to each other.

"Bert, I know they're not extra-length beds," began Sheldon, "but I think it will be long enough if you lie down diagonally."

Amy brought in sheets and a blanket.

"It'll be fine. I'm used to not fitting on beds, anyway. Hey, Wolowitz told me there was a great out-cropping of granite and maybe gabbro that creates a promontory out into the water. I'd love to go see it in the morning. I even brought some rock collecting tools with me."

"And you should have seen him twying to get thwu secuwity with them!" Kripke said, shaking his head. "I thought we wuh going to be awested."

Crossing the hall, they showed Kripke to the guest room. "The bathroom is right across the hall," explained Amy, 'but it's the only full bathroom in the house." She continued telling him about the lavatory downstairs and the claw-footed bathtub in the barn.

"Oh, wow, you weally ah in the sticks out heah. Do they woll up the sidewalks in town at night, too? I bet you got an icebox instead of a weefwidgehwaytah in the kitchen. Maybe a wood-buhning stove? Hee-hee! I wouldn't be suhpwised if you even had a ghost, too! Well, Coopah, you wouldn't need to woewee. You look enough like Ichabod Cwane to scayeh anything."

Amy through the bedding at Kripke. "Go to sleep, Barry." We'll see you in the morning."

Bert and Barry were up by 10 am, and before they knew what hit them, the geologist had gone through six cups of coffee, a full-sized glass of orange juice, 4 eggs, a quarter pound of bacon, one-third of a loaf of bread, plus butter and jam. "I'm sorry, I know I'm a big guy and a big eater. Why don't we go into town later and I'll buy the groceries? It's the least I can do," Bert said apologetically.

"Well, we weren't expecting anyone, so we really hadn't stocked anything extra," Amy replied. "But, I'm happy to admit that contributing to the food supply would be a help."

"How about thowing some meat on the gwill for dinnah? I volunteeah to cook it!" Sheldon looked at Kripke, wondering if he should trust the other physicist to cook his food.

"Oh, what the heck," Sheldon thought to himself. "I have my prize. There's no point in Barry trying to poison me now."

"Gentlemen, you have a deal. Why don't we drive up to the promontory while its' still cool and then we can drive over to Keystone for lunch and after do our shopping. Schooner Bay's selection of anything besides fish, is limited," Amy explained.

While the four scientists collected what they needed for their day, Carolyn and Daniel couldn't help being amused by the new characters and what had transpired already.

"Red eye! Friendlier flight attendants! Goodness, I'm surprised Claymore never used that excuse." Daniel's colors were almost a champagne-shade of yellow-beige with little pops of light blue, which gave the impression of bubbles popping in ginger ale. "And what a mountain of a man! He has to be at least six foot, seven, maybe even eight. Why when he walks across the floor, the timbers of the house sway and groan!"

If Carolyn could still laugh, she would have. "I shouldn't make fun of Dr. Kripke, but really, that speech impediment…and he said he used to be worse, before therapy?!" Her colors rippled through the rainbow. "But he does have a nasty side to him, while Dr. Kibbler doesn't seem to have a mean bone in his very large body."

"Quite, m'dear," the Captain replied. "I'm not sure, however, that we need concern ourselves with such a petty little man as Barry Kripke. I suspect he has a very young soul and he will be making many excursions into all sorts of lives in order to learn about humility." "Carolyn poked a tendril of her energy into Daniel.

"Uh huh, she replied. "And you still don't have a modesty hang-up, Daniel Gregg!"

"I don't undehstand why we couldn't just walk along the beach to the pwomentowy," Kripke complained. "It's a nice mohning, the tide's out, puhfect day foh a stwoll."

"Sorry, Barry," Sheldon replied. "All the beaches along here are private. Legally, the owners would have the right to have us arrested for trespassing. Everyone takes 'their' beach very seriously. Besides, it's a lot farther than it looks from the house. You'll be glad later that we took the car when you want to leave with all the tools and rock samples."

Moments later, Amy guided the rental car to the side of the road where the promontory rose gently to meet the sky. Eagerly, Bert unfolded himself from the back seat, grabbed his bag of tools and samples bag and before anyone could catch up, he started walking up the spine of the large outcropping. By the time the other three caught up with him, Bert was stretched out on his stomach, a magnifying lens hung over the right side of his glasses, staring intently at the stone.

"Wolowitz was right. This is metamorphic stone; a combo of igneous granite and gabbro. See here?" He pointed to a patch of lighter and darker stone. "The gabbro is the darker stone. It's also got more iron in it and it's got a greater mass than the granite."

"Does it polish up like granite?" Amy asked.

"Yeah. It does, but it looks a little different. Occasionally pieces get sold as granite, but not too often. Its heavier to work with, so it's not really good for countertops and things, and the high iron content makes it more valuable for other uses. I just like the color pattern this mixing produces."

Bert sat up and began to hammer little pieces of stone from the top of the promontory, and after a quick look, put them in his samples bag and then got up and walked farther along until he was at the very edge of the rock, looking out to sea. Looking down for a few minutes, he admired the waves crashing against the base of the rocks. There was no beach here, just pieces of stone that had separated from the larger mass, and pebbles ranging in color from darkest coal black to light gray, with a few brown pebbles and bits of deadwood mixed in. The action of the waves over the centuries had started to wear away the rock at the bottom, creating an indentation. In another eon or so, it would become a cave. "Wow! Just wow!" he breathed.

"Hey, cayful, Kibbleh. One slip and you'd be splattehd on the wocks below. I don't know if they could even wetwieve youh body!" Barry was a few steps behind Bert. He looked over the side at the rocks and felt a little light-headed. "Uh, someone…could someone give me theyuh hand?" Bert carefully turned around. "You OK, Barry? Here,'' putting his large hand on Kripke's shoulder, he gently moved Kripke more to the middle of the outcropping. "Stay in the middle and look straight ahead toward the road. You'll be fine."

Later that afternoon, Amy found Barry Kripke in the parlor with a book on his lap, but instead of reading, he was staring at the portrait of Captain Gregg over the fireplace.

"Barry, is something the matter?" she asked.

"Oh, no," he roused himself from the hypnotic hold the portrait had over him for a moment. "I was just wondehwing what kind of life that sailoh lived."

"The term is 'seaman', and from what I've heard, the builder of Gull Cottage had a very exciting life."

"Did he fight piwates? Attack enemy vessels with cannon fyah? Haul cahgo laden with gold and jewels? Suhvive huwicanes at sea? And meet native, half-naked gells in gwass skehts?"

"I don't know the details, but he is considered the hero of Schooner Bay. He built this house himself, and, well, you can see the antiques that are still here." she replied.

"I bet he knew how to use a swoahd," Barry said, his imagination taking him over. "Thwust and pawwy, thwust and pawwy." He stood up, assuming the classic position of a sword-fighter's thrust. "Oh boy, I would have loved to live in those days. 'The Gweat Piwate Kwipke!'"

"Are you thinking of The Princess Bride?" Amy asked.

If Daniel and Carolyn still had physical bodies, they would have been rolling on the floor and crying with laughter at Kripke's idea of a 19th century sea captain's life.

"Really, the man has read too many penny novels! Carolyn, can you believe 'cargos of gold and jewels'? More like guano and sugar cane."

"And native girls in grass skirts, Daniel?"

"Ah, well, even a stopped clock is right twice a day, dear lady. But really! 'The Great Pirate Kripke'?! My aunt Ida could have bested him in battle any day and twice on Sunday."

The next day, the two physicists were sitting on the porch, sipping coffee.

"So, Coopah, have you thought about what yoh want to study next? Maybe look at stwing theowy from the supah asymmetwy angle? It might have potential."

"We've been trying to think about it, but we really haven't had the time or the desire to buckle down to it. We've just been enjoying our company and each other and this place…" Sheldon replied.

"Well, I have some ideas that you might find intewesting. I think we could have a fwuitful collabowation bwinging togetheh yoh weseahch and mine."

Sheldon looked at Kripke critically for a moment. "Amy and I are a team, Barry. She brought as much to the Super Asymmetry Theory as I did."

"Yeah, I know, Coopah. But the thing is, she's a neuwobiologist, not a physicist. Huwh insights into the basics of the theowy might have been impohtant; in fact, I'm shuah they weah, but now we need to go into the puwah", meaning 'pure', "physics of the theowy. I'm handing you a golden oppatunity, heah. Between the two of us, we could unify evewything, the whole ball of wax! Just think, Coopah! _Anohthah Nobel!_"

Sheldon sighed deeply and stood over Kripke. "No, Barry. First of all, I don't know if I…or we…will continue to work on super asymmetry. If we do, Amy is my partner. Period. If not, and she wants to go back to her neurobiology research, that's fine and I will do everything I can to support her. But I can't imagine a scenario where you and I could be collaborators, Barry. I just don't see it."

While Sheldon and Kripke were talking on the front porch, Amy was enjoying some fruit while Bert did the breakfast dishes.

"Another cup of coffee?" his voice rumbled through the kitchen.

Amy smiled, remembering when he wanted to date her when she and Sheldon had broken up. He was a nice guy, just not Sheldon. "No thank you, Bert. Any plans for today?"

"Nah, nothing really. I thought maybe I'd take a nice stroll into town in a little while. I could use the exercise. If I find some nice fish, I'll buy it for dinner."

"That would be nice. Thanks again."

"Uh, Amy…can I tell you something?"

She was a little nervous about what he wanted to tell her, but she didn't have the heart to stop him. "Of course!"

"It's nice here, and you and Sheldon have been really great about us just dropping in on you with no notice, but, well…I've seen the granite and the gabbro. The promontory was neat, but 'been there, done that'. And, honestly, this little town…its boring. I think I want to go back home tomorrow."

"Oh, Bert! Are you sure? You haven't gone to the beach yet and there are other towns to explore."

"Thanks, Amy. But I can go to the beach any time in California, and I've come to realize that I don't like little towns. I stand out even more in them. I think home is where I'm happiest." With that, Bert strode out to the porch, calling, "Barry! I'm going home tomorrow. You should leave Sheldon and Amy in peace, too."


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9: The Gregg-Muir-Scientists Evolution Resolution**

After Bert Kibbler and Barry Kripke left Gull Cottage, Sheldon and Amy were finally through with surprise guests and the last three weeks of their stay in Schooner Bay flew by.

With the end of August, they could feel the weather beginning to change; the days weren't so hot, and the nights cooled down enough to leave dew on the grass in the mornings. By the middle of the afternoon it was nice and warm, but without humidity. When twilight approached, the breeze off the bay picked up, reminding the summer visitors of autumn around the corner. The Canadian geese were starting to show up, their honks mixing in with the call of the gulls and many an evening Amy and Sheldon could smell the wood fires from other houses wafting in through the windows.

They hadn't made any significant headway on planning where to take their research. At the moment, it didn't seem so important anymore and for once the previously driven scientists were just enjoying life one day at a time.

They had heard from Raj about Dr. Varonskaya. Apparently, they had some areas of joint interest and were discussing some possible projects together. He also reported that she was pretty, but quite tall, didn't have any social anxiety issues or fixations with death, the occult or goth life like some of his old girlfriends did, didn't feel any pressure about not having a significant other, didn't have parents who were anxious for her to be married like Anu had, and she had a toy poodle named "Pushkin" who played well with Cinnamon at the dog park. It had all the makings of a good friendship, at least. He said he decided that what he needed at the moment was more of a friend and colleague than a potential fiancée.

"Ah," remarked Daniel. Perhaps he is beginning to think more maturely about a mate."

"It must be difficult for him with so many of his good friends getting married, having children," Carolyn replied. "I remember back in my youth that there was so much pressure to pair off with someone. It lead to a lot of divorce and unhappiness. I hope that Raj is able to continue to resist jumping into an unhappy marriage, just for the sake of being married."

"I think, replied the Captain somberly, "it just demonstrates how remarkable and unique our relationship is. How many people can really say that they have found their soul mate?"

With that, their energies merged and swirled and eventually became indistinguishable from one another, and then separated again. "Was that as good for you as it was for me?" asked Carolyn, with a laughing color.

Back in Gull Cottage, Amy and Sheldon began their last week of vacation by surveying what they needed to take home, what to throw out and what needed to be cleaned and put back to rights in the house. They had arranged with Candy to have her come out two days before they left so that they could do their in-depth interview with her for her documentary on that year's American Nobel Prize winners. They would do the interview right there, in her old home.

For her part, Candy felt that being back at Gull Cottage would help relax her in the face to the difficult topic of Super Asymmetry. Despite spending most of the summer trying to understand the theory, she really didn't grasp much of it; it was dense stuff! And she also worried about how the interview would go with the nervous scientists. It was her hope that after two months of slow Schooner Bay life and the warmth and charm of Gull Cottage, they'd be at ease as well.

When she arrived that Thursday evening, she was pleasantly surprised at how "ship shape and Bristol Fashion" the Cooper's had kept the house. It looked like it didn't need any major cleaning, nothing was in disrepair (and they told her that they and their friends had made repairs and adjustments to the water heater that had it working better than it ever had before), and she was sure that both Martha and Captain Gregg would approve of how they treated the old house.

Jonathan's children would not be joining them this year, so Candy took her old bedroom. Jonathan and Amanda would be staying in his room when they arrived in a few days. Neither brother or sister felt comfortable sleeping in the Master Cabin, in the bed where first Daniel Gregg had slept, and then their mother, unless the house was full. It seemed somehow, sacrilegious and an invasion of their privacy.

On Friday morning, Candy's crew and support staff descended on the house. She had decided to film the interview in the parlor, in front of the fireplace, over which Captain Gregg's portrait still hung. It was a good-sized room, and once the sofas and table were removed and the lights and the chairs arranged, it would make an impressive set for the interview. She had told Sheldon and Amy to dress informally, and she wore a pair of dress khaki's and a print blouse with her blond hair pulled back off her face. Dressing very informally was the norm for Sheldon, so he put on a clean pair of jeans and upgraded to a Cal Tech polo shirt. Amy had more difficulty deciding what to wear. Her new professional clothes were much too formal, and besides, she'd spent the entire summer in either yoga pants or summer dresses. Finding a happy medium was difficult. Finally, she decided on her white yoga pants and a long, flowing silky top and looking at herself in the mirror over "her" dresser, she decided that she looked pretty damn good. The top complimented her coloring and her time outdoors had given her cheeks a nice blush. She was feeling butterflies in her stomach as she got ready that morning, but the thought of the interview had been affecting her all week already.

Sheldon and Amy watched a while as Candy consulted with various members of her team, going over items on several pages of papers. Someone from the makeup department was on hand to give them a light coat of foundation and added some subtle color to Amy's cheeks and lips. Sheldon squeezed her hand appreciatively. "You look as pretty as you did on our wedding day," he whispered, making his wife blush.

Candy and the segment producer and director came over to them to go over how the interview would be conducted. Candy particularly wanted to go over the questions and answers that would help the audience to understand what their theory was all about and what it meant to the general understanding of the universe. There would be a few personal questions as well and an opportunity to touch on the teaching of STEM: **S**cience, **T**echnology, **E**ngineering and **M**ath, as a routine part of every American child's education, and a statement from Amy encouraging the participation of more women in these areas. It was nearing 12:30 when it was decided that everything was in readiness for the interview.

"OK, people, let's do this!" Candy announced assertively as she strode to her chair.

"Welcome to this segment of American Genius. I'm your host, Candace Muir-Gregg, and with me are this year's Nobel Prize winners in Physics, Dr. Sheldon Lee Cooper and Dr. Amy Farrah Fowler." Candy turned first to Amy. "Dr. Fowler, I understand that you are actually a neurobiologist, not a physicist. How did you become involved in the discovery of Super Asymmetry?"

Amy explained how her different point of view was able to help Sheldon discern this new concept and that from that moment on, their collaboration was a natural outcome.

Candy turned next to Sheldon. "Dr. Cooper, is it possible to explain Super Asymmetry in a few short sentences?"

"Well, that is a difficult assignment, but I'll do my best. First we have Super Symmetry, a theory that basically says that particles like bosons have a 'partner' particle, like an electron. These particles are always spinning in the same direction, but the "main" particle spins twice as fast as the 'partner' particle. Our theory starts from a similar place; a main particle will have an 'antagonist' rather than a 'partner'. These particles do not spin in the same direction, or even the same plane and the rotation ratio is never a rational number," he replied.

"But what does that mean in practical terms? Is there any use for this?" Candy asked.

"Not yet," replied Amy, "We need to find these 'asymmetrical pairs' first. And at this point, no one has yet found symmetrical pairs, which would seem to be easier. So, it might be a long time before there is any practical use for this knowledge."

"That's why its _Theoretical_ Physics," Sheldon added.

Candy continued. "Will you be attempting to find or isolate these particles?"

"We really haven't come to any decision about what to do next," replied Sheldon.

Looking down at her notes, Candy switched subjects. "I understand that you were a friend of Steven Hawking. Did you discuss your theory with him before he passed away?"

"No, sadly we didn't have the opportunity. Amy and I had the breakthrough about Super Asymmetry at our wedding, and Dr. Hawking died while we were on our honeymoon. Naturally, I was upset that I couldn't share this with him. He was not only a friend, but a hero of mine."

"Dr. Cooper, I know that Dr. Fowler enjoys playing the harp and the zither for relaxation. What do you do when you're not thinking about physics?"

Sheldon looked at Amy and smiled. It had been too long since he had heard her play anything. "Well, besides listening to Amy make music, I like gaming, sci-fi, and for a couple of years Amy and I had a little web show called 'Fun with Flags', but after discussing all the national, state, regional, commercial and informational flags we could find, we had to end the show. But it was a lot of fun to do. We even dressed up in national costumes…and once Amy dressed up as a pretzel…"

"A pretzel?" Candy was quite bemused.

Amy laughed, enjoying the memory. "Yes! Believe it or not, a pretzel. A Bavarian pretzel!"

The next morning the Coopers where up before dawn to make sure that all their things were really and truly packed, the bed stripped and everything back in place. Sheldon was just about to take their bags down to the rental car for their trip to the airport in Bangor, when Amy stopped him.

"Sheldon, there's something I want to show you, and I wanted to show you before we left Gull Cottage, because this happened here."

"What is it, Amy? We're on a tight schedule."

She held out her hand and opened her fist. In it was a home pregnancy test. Sheldon looked at it, then looked at her and then looked at it again. Finally, he picked her up and spun her around, whooping. "We're gonna have a baby! We're gonna have a baby!"

"Oh, how marvelous!" Carolyn sparkled a rose-gold.

"Hah! Sheldon will never know what hit him." Daniel laughed. "Just wait until he changes his first diaper!"

"I remember a certain super-spirit of a sea captain attempting to apply his first disposable diaper to my two-week-old granddaughter. I seem to recall some seaman's knots were employed before the adhesive tabs were discovered."

"Carolyn…might I remind you…I did manage to make two perfect square knots by modifying the diaper a bit."

"Too bad the baby didn't fit in the diaper by the time you finished, Daniel."

"She didn't, did she?" It was his turn to laugh in an exuberant blue the exact color of eyes he had as both mortal and spirit.

"That's alright. I didn't fall in love with you just because of your diapering skills, you know."

"No, I suppose you didn't, m'dear. Well," he turned to look at the scene below them, "it seems 'our' humans are doing quite well now."

"With a little nudge here and there?"

"Just a little."


End file.
